Following a year of highly successful Cabled Array operations, the University of Washington Cabled Array team will soon sail on the second Operations and Maintenance expedition VISIONS’16. The 39-day expedition, July 10-August 14, will be aboard the R/V Sikuliaq, hosting the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason. Over 100 instruments on the seafloor and throughout the water column have been streaming data at the speed of light to shore. Over 700 users are viewing seismic data from IRIS, and other data are now becoming available through the Ocean Observatories Initiative Data Portal. Since last summer, high definition video has been streaming live 8 times a day from the summit of Axial Seamount, the largest volcano off the Oregon-Washington coast. The video is streaming along underwater high power and bandwidth fiber optics cable from >300 miles offshore and from >5000 feet beneath the oceans’ surface. Three shallow profilers have made over 7000 trips from 600 ft water depth to near the oceans’ surface. Each of the winched profilers stream data live from 18 instruments that include pH, CO2, current meter, dissolved oxygen and CTD sensors, and digital still cameras.
During the Cabled Array VISIONS’16 cruise, UW scientists from the School of Oceanography within the College of the Environment, and engineers from the Applied Physics Laboratory will recover and reinstall >100 instruments, two science pods on each of the Shallow Profiler Moorings, and recover and reinstall two Deep Profiler Moorings. The cruise will depart Sunday — please join us on our journey of discovery…